In late May of this year, everyone in our Michigan neighborhood was delighted to see the resident pair of Mute swans swimming around our lake with five beautiful tiny cygnets. Unfortunately, the baby cygnets were picked off one by one by an unknown predator(s) in early July until only one cygnet remained. The trio stayed together for the most part over the next few weeks, though the parents would occasionally fly to another part of the lake and the cygnet would swim some relatively long distrances to join them.

Then, about 3 weeks ago, the parents flew off and we didn't see them until they returned a few days later. The parents flew off and reappeared a few more times after that (sometimes staying with the cygnet for 2-3 days), but now it's been well over a week since we've seen the parents. The cygnet looks very healthy, is now about the size of a Canada goose, seems to have lost it's fluffiness, and otherwise is looking more like a small adult swan rather than a tiny cygnet. We're wondering if it's normal for swans to abandon cygnets at this age. Also, we have never seen the cygnet flap its wings, and we're wondering if it will be able to learn how to fly without its parents being around. Any information you can give us will be greatly appreciated.